Thailand's Onuma Sittirak, one of the five Thai players currently playing in Azerbaijan's professional league, will be joining the national team on November 1 only a short while before the start of the FIVB World Grand Champions Cup.

Lausanne,
Switzerland, October 24, 2013 – Thai coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai has
been realistic in his assessment of his team’s chances at winning the World
Grand Champions Cup, citing a lack of preparation time.

Asian
champions Thailand will take on wild-card Dominican Republic in the opening
match of the FIVB World Grand Champions Cup scheduled to take place from
November 12 to 17 in Japan.

"Five
players, including Onuma Sittirak, Nootsara Tomkom and Wilavan Apinyapong, are
playing in the professional league in Azerbaijan but should join us on November
1,” said Kiattipong.

“The rest of the team are training at Hua Mark
where the emphasis is on physical fitness. That means they have to undergo more
weight training. We have included some new and young players for the training
camp, but for the World Grand Champions Cup campaign we will send the
full-strength team that won the Asian meet in Nakhon Ratchasima last month."

Whatever
the outcome, the Thai coach is confident that the competition will offer
valuable experience for his players. "We will have just one month for
preparation, [but] the five in Azerbaijan will only be able to train with us
for one week. Due to the shortage of training time I am not expecting my team
to win the title. The exposure of playing against good teams will help, but I
am not setting any target. Just keep your fingers crossed, my players will do
their best in every match," Kiattipong said.

Thailand
qualified for the FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Grand Champions Cup when they
won the 17th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship for a second
consecutive time in September. As well as Thailand's clash with the Dominicans,
the first day in Nagoya will see World No. 1 Brazil take on well-known
opponents, the US while Japan go up against Russia.

The Dominican
Republic, who finished third in the 2009 edition of the World Grand Champions
Cup, were handed the wild card following their impressive world No 8 ranking
and their second-place finish in the NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship
that took place in Omaha, USA in September.

The FIVB Volleyball
World Grand Champions Cup features a total of six teams per gender with the
hosts Japan being joined by the continental winners from Asia (Thailand),
Europe (Russia), NORCECA (USA) and South America (Brazil) and the Dominican
Republic, who was the wild card entry country, jointly selected by the FIVB,
the Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) and the Nippon Television Network
Corporation (NTA). Africa do not have an automatic spot in the tournament after
finishing the 2012 Olympic Games as the lowest ranked confederation amongst the
five.